Shattered Justice (10 page)

Agatha sat back in her rocker, setting it in equally rapid motion, the dog in her lap scrambling to stay balanced. “Fiddle-faddle, Doris. Don’t need it. I hear just fine.”

“Ha! You can’t hear worth spit.”

Agatha peered at her friend. “What’s that?”

Doris’s expression was that of utter innocence. “I
said
, looks like rain’s going to hit.”

“Rain?” Agatha stared up at the bright sun. “There’s not a cloud in the sky, you nit!”

Dan and the kids drew closer, and Aaron nudged him. “Is that a rat on her lap, Dad?”

He coughed to cover a laugh. “No, it’s a dog.”

Disbelief painted his son’s features. “No way.”

“It’s a Chihuahua.” This from Shannon, ever the animal expert. “I think he’s adorable!”

Dan slipped an arm around his children’s shoulders and inclined his head to the two women. “Morning, ladies. I’m Dan Justice.”

“Doris Kleffer.” The woman nodded to Dan, a dimple peeking out from the soft wrinkles on her cheek. “And the deaf one here is Agatha Hunter.”

“Well!” Agatha let a breath out on a huff. “If you’re not going to introduce me, I’ll do it myself.” She cut the other woman’s indignant response off by sticking her hand out to Dan. “Agatha Hunter. This is my friend, Doris. And this handsome fellow—” she lifted the Chihuahua, whose spindly little legs went rigid—“is Half Pint.”

“He’s so cute!”

Before Dan could stop her, Shannon stepped forward to
scratch the dangling dog’s big ears. Dan’s fear that the dog might snap at her faded when a tiny pink tongue shot out, licking Shannon’s hands as though they were his salvation.

“He likes you, dear.” Agatha’s wrinkles folded into a beaming smile. “He can always tell who the nicest people are.”

“Miss Hunter, Miss Kleffer, these are my children, Shannon and Aaron.”

Agatha frowned. “What’s that about a harem?”

“Oh, for the love of
Pete
, Aggie!” Doris leaned over and poked her finger in the other woman’s ear, giving a quick turn. A shrill whine sounded, and Agatha tucked Half Pint close and batted her friend’s hand away.

“That’s
too
high!”

Shannon giggled, and Aaron stepped up beside her, stroking Half Pint’s tiny snout with a finger. “Is he a puppy?”

“Oh, no, dear.” Agatha was all smiles again. “He’s full grown.”

“So this is as big as he’ll get?” Aaron’s amazement amused the two ladies. “Wow. He’s gotta be the smallest dog I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s why we just count him as a half.”

Shannon and Aaron exchanged a look then grinned at Dan. “The population sign, Dad. Half Pint is the
and one half
!”

Dan was about to tell the kids that not even Sanctuary was so small it would list a dog on its official population when Agatha spoke up, pride ringing in her words. “Indeed, he is. Like his father before him, and his mother before that.”

Okay. So he was wrong.

Agatha leaned toward Shannon. “You are just the prettiest little thing. Like a little angel come right down from heaven.”

Dan nudged Aaron when he groaned. Fortunately, Agatha didn’t seem to hear his brotherly disgust.

“What’s your name?”

“Shannon Michelle Justice, ma’am.”

“Justice?” Agatha looked up at Dan. “Now isn’t that fine? You’re the new sheriff come to live in town!”

Before Dan could respond, Doris chimed in, holding her hands out to Kyla and Annie. “And these must be your dear sisters.” She took Annie’s hand, patting it and making a
tsk
ing sound as she looked at Dan. “So sorry to hear about your wife, Sheriff Justice.”

Dan didn’t know what alarmed him most: being called a sheriff or the fact that his life was so well known by people he’d never met. “I’m not a sherri—”

“Oh, won’t it be wonderful, Agatha, to have our very own sheriff living right in Sanctuary?”

Dan tried to reply, but he didn’t get the chance. Agatha popped up out of her rocker—Dan would never have imagined those old bones could be so spry—and hobbled over to call down the sidewalk toward the other rocking chairs.

“Come on over, folks! Come meet our new sheriff!”

“Uh, no … hang on. I’m just a deput—”

No one was listening. Suddenly Dan and his family found themselves surrounded by people smiling and talking and patting them on the backs, welcoming them to “our little piece of heaven on earth.”

As Dan smiled and did his best to connect names with faces, a shiver crawled across his shoulders. He had the distinct feeling he was being watched. Glancing up over the heads of those around him, he scanned the sidewalk.

And locked gazes with a pair of eyes so cold they were arctic. The kid staring at him was a hulk. Had to be almost as tall as Dan, but he guessed the kid outweighed him by a good fifty pounds. Not that he was fat. He was just big. Defensive-lineman big. No-neck big.

But the kid’s size didn’t make Dan take note of him. It was the look in those dark eyes. Though Dan couldn’t tell the color from here, he had no trouble recognizing the expression carved into the kid’s features. He’d seen it way too often in his work with troubled kids. Especially with the boys.

Anger. Arrogance. And just a touch of fear. A bad combination. One that had a nasty tendency to turn troubled kids downright dangerous.

“Come on, Sheriff.” Dan looked down at Doris, whose thin hand was resting on his arm. “LouBelle has invited us all to her diner for coffee and fresh baked cake.”

He put his hand over hers. “Sounds great. But Doris—” he glanced back to the kid down the sidewalk. He still stood there, leaning against the building like he owned it. “Tell me, who is that boy?”

Doris peered past him then pulled back, lips thinning. “Oh, he’s a bad one, Sheriff. Marlin Murphy.” Her tongue clucked. “Sixteen and nothing but trouble. That young man is going to come to no good, just like his father.”

Before Dan could ask any more, Agatha and several others tugged at him. “Let’s go, Sheriff Justice. Cake doesn’t stay fresh all day!”

Dan followed Agatha, his family in tow. Several hours later, their arms laden with gifts of pies and cookies and homemade bread, Dan and the others finally made their way back to their vehicles.

“Wow.” Aaron shook his head as he climbed into the moving truck. “Those people can
talk
!”

“They can, indeed.” Kyla held the car door open for Dan as he unloaded his goods to the backseat. “Something tells me, dear brother, you’ve not only said farewell to the city, but to the luxury of privacy.”

“It’ll be fine. I’d rather have folks be friendly and supportive than remote and uninterested.” He got into the truck, rolled the window down, then pulled the door shut.

“Well, then, you should be ecstatic,” Kyla retorted. “Because they
certainly
are interested.”

“Interested … and interest
ing
.” Annie’s gaze was fixed across the street. When she turned back to Dan, warning bells went off at the gleam in his sister’s eyes.

“Okay, infant, what are you up to?”

Her wide-eyed innocence would have done Doris proud. “Me? Not a thing.” She leaned against the truck door. “So, to the house?”

Dan frowned. What had Annie been looking at? Nothing was across the street but the tiny house that served as Sanctuary’s public library. The tidy structure was adorned on the outside with an abundance of rose bushes, all laden with large, colorful blooms.

A woman stood there, her face hidden behind a wide-brimmed hat. Garden clippers in one hand, a basketful of daffodils in the other, she was the picture of a contented gardener. As a breeze tickled Dan’s face, he could just hear the soft sound of the woman’s singing.

She had a lovely voice.

The sound of a car starting pulled his awareness back to matters at hand. He glanced toward the car and caught Annie’s expression. She looked as though she’d just discovered something … intriguing. He looked from her to the woman at the library.

Oh no.

He knew Annie meant well. She was a romantic through and through. And she always saw possibilities, which made her a gifted artist and, at times, and gigantic pain in the neck as a sister. Though she recognized it was far too early to talk about it, Dan knew, in her heart of hearts, she wanted him to fall in love again, to have someone to share his life with, to help raise the kids. But just because he noticed a shapely woman with an angelic voice who was close to his age didn’t mean he was ready, could
ever
be ready, to let another woman into his life.

Grabbing the gearshift, he jammed the truck into gear.

Yes, he and the kids needed a change. And they’d gotten one. A big one. Huge. But Dan loved Sarah—past, present, and future. She was the one and only great love of his life. And though she was gone, his love for her wasn’t.

Marlin Murphy slumped down in the rocking chair, planted his feet on the railing, and watched the moving truck drive away. “So—” he spoke around the toothpick clamped between his teeth—“law and order’s come to Sanctuary?”

Snorts met his proclamation. “Law and order! Yeah, right.”

“I’ll show that cop law and order. Jerk thinks he can just take over
our
town.”

Marlin leveled a glare at the two idiots leaning against the railing. Dicky and Jay Larsen, the brainless brothers. Good thing they got second helpings on brawn, ’cuz they were sure hiding behind the door when brains were handed out. “Why don’t you two just shut up?”

Their mouths clamped shut, and Marlin rolled his eyes. Fools. He was surrounded by fools.

Well … not
all
fools. There was always Jayce. Kid was as smart as they came. A little hard to control at times, but that’s where the two muscle morons came in.

“Marlin?”

He frowned at Dicky, not even bothering to hide his impatience. “I thought I told you to shut up?”

“Yeah, I know. But are you …? I mean …”

Marlin jerked his feet off the railing and slammed them onto the boardwalk. “
What
?”

Dicky bobbed his head. “Well, that cop. You gonna just let him come to town like that?”

Marlin shot a look at Dicky that shut him up quick.

Slow as ever, Jay piped up. “Yeah.”

Oh, joy. Another pea brain country heard from. “Don’t be stupid.” He snorted. “Oh, sorry. Forgot who I was talking to.”

The brothers frowned, and Marlin could tell they were trying to figure out if they’d just been insulted. He stood, rolling
his shoulders. “Don’t worry about the cop.”

Jay’s grin was half sneer. “You gonna take care of him, aren’t you?”

Marlin pushed Dicky out of the way, striding down the street. The two brothers fell in step beside him, as he’d known they would.

“You gonna do it, huh, Marlin? Take care of the cop?”

A small smile touched his lips. “That’s my job, boys. Taking care of things.”

“And you’re good at it, too.”

“Yeah,” Jay chimed in. “Really good.”

Marlin’s smile grew. They had no idea. But they would. Soon enough, everyone—especially the good deputy—would know just how good he was.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY BLEW UP AN OUTHOUSE.”

Jasmine took a serious chomp on her gum, studying the two young boys sitting in Dan’s office. “Hey, it’s the thing to do for kids out here.”

Dan grimaced. “But … an outhouse?” He’d heard that was the most common offense among teens and preteens in Sanctuary, and supposed he should be grateful his first experience with the favored pastime of tiny minds had waited two months to hit him.

“Yeah, well, with so many of the fathers from the area gone, kids find all kindsa ways of getting into trouble.”

His receptionist-slash-dispatcher sure seemed to know the area. But it would be a lot easier to take her seriously if she looked a bit less … what was the term Aaron liked to use?

Oh yes.
Bizarro
.

First time Dan met Jasmine, he couldn’t believe she was the town council’s choice for working with him in the office. The fact that she was barely in her twenties was concern enough. Could a girl that young take this kind of job seriously? Especially when her résumé showed her only experience was several years of babysitting for neighbors and being a part-time cashier at the local market-cum-gas station?

Then there was the way she looked. Jasmine Carlson was … an individual. When he first met her, her hair was short, spiked—and green. And she dressed in black. All black. And in the four months he’d been in Sanctuary, the girl’s hair had changed at least a dozen times. Sometimes every week. He never knew what color it would be. So far she’d shown up with blue, purple, bright pink, and the same color red as the old Chevy truck his grandfather used to drive.